I love the way you mentioned to not worry about metrics..

Great post. Hope you don’t mind if I introduce my personal perspective.

The challenge I run into with social media as a Small Business Owner and Web Marketer is the dichotomy of 1) Developing your network to accomplish your internet marketing efforts (meaning spending endless ours at SEO, coding, design, etc forums and blogs) and 2) Developing your network around your products and customers (reviewing reports, commenting news, analyzing new findings, article writing, etc).

I like the idea of creating a long term community around my business as well as participating in communities that bring value to my marketing efforts, and that I can contribute to their cause. However, in my experience most of the time they don’t intertwine. For instance, not many SEO people care about Natural Products, and not many Greenies care about SEO. Or when they do, often times the efforts can be mistakenly perceived as trying too hard to promote your ideas or business. So there is a thin line to walk through. Plus, becoming a member of different communities also implies to change hats all the time at a very fast pace. In the process, mistakes are made unintentionally.

This goes along with something I would call the fourth category: “The Mayflowers” or new web marketers who are interested in social media. It could be a daunting experience for newbies to try to understand how things work (on top of other responsibilities) and be effective at using the tools and networks. In our desire to become members of a community many things can be done without proper understanding of protocols and principles. One can find himself in a spamming situation, or focusing too much on link bait to the point of affecting our brands. Is that always done intentionally or premeditated? I don’t think so. But it happens all the time. I am guilty of that.

Finally, even though the approach you are taking to measure someone’s success in social media is applicable; it might not work for some of us. Blogging cannot be a measure to take into consideration for some because of the limitations it can present. My question is: where do I focus my blogging efforts? The marketing community that will help me carry out my goals, or my customers and potential market that can buy my products? Both will be challenging to be good at, and I am not sure they should be mixed under the same business.

Your thoughts are appreciated.